Steinbrenner for Kids

The illustrated George Steinbrenner is smiling and robust on the cover of “One Last Time: Goodbye to Yankee Stadium,” the latest Yankees-themed children’s book by Ray Negron, an adviser for the club. Steinbrenner is wearing his familiar white turtleneck and navy sports coat, giving a thumbs-up with his right hand and patting a young boy on the shoulder with his left.

When the book goes to a second edition, it will be smaller, cost a lot more, and fans will wonder why the heck a second edition was needed when the first edition is still perfectly serviceable and they all have such fond memories of it.

Yes, it’s hokey and contrived, but if you realize the context in which the author can relate to Steinbrenner, it wouldn’t be as surprising or whatever.

Ray Negron was nabbed as a kid by George spraying graffitti on the Stadium and went on to be a ballboy and life long Steinbrenner confidant. So while we all like to mock the caricature of The Boss, he can be quite generous and magnanamous away from the camera (aside from pulling dental benefits from employees, of course)

““It’s my way of being able to finally walk away,” Negron said. “It’s very, very personal.””